New Glarus Brewing president meets, shares beer with Obama

The antsy customer was the president of the United States, Barack Obama, and the woman in apparent need was the president of a brewery, Deb Carey, who knows a few things about delivering suds.

Carey, co-founder with her husband, Dan, of New Glarus Brewing, not only swapped her own beer for half a six-pack of the president’s home brew during a meeting at the White House, she made some economic points on behalf of small businesses, sat across from Obama and got a kiss on the cheek from Vice President Joe Biden.

Carey was invited along with 15 other successful small business owners to meet with the White House Business Council. It was her fourth such meeting — “they have not all been happy meetings,” she noted — but the first time Obama and Biden were present in the Roosevelt Room.

Though the topic was economic recovery and how to “get it moving faster,” Carey specifically brought up health care costs and skilled labor education. She also said the president and vice president stayed for the whole meeting, talking with each person and soliciting ideas.